


The Greatest Treasure Of All

by Nununununu



Category: Treasure Planet (2002)
Genre: Battle Couple, Bloody Kisses, Canon-typical deus ex machina, Character A Chooses To Die/Risk Death At Character B's Side Rather Than Face Life Without Them, Don't copy to another site, First Kiss, Love story that never uses the word love, Loyalty, M/M, Minor Violence, Not Underage, Peril, Post-Canon, Protectiveness, Self-Sacrificing Loyalty (with a happy ending), Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22341889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu
Summary: “What,” Jim was simply unable to refrain from giving the other man a look from under his bangs, “Are you seriously expecting me to hide away somewhere and leave you –”“No,” Silver huffed, even as he eased up on Jim’s sword, “’Course I don’t expect you to do that, Jimbo.” His wince was becoming even more pronounced as the mammoth enemy ship closed in on them, “I’d just thank you kindly if you’d at least consider it.”
Relationships: Jim Hawkins/John Silver
Comments: 17
Kudos: 99
Collections: Return to the Iron Triangle - January 2020





	The Greatest Treasure Of All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Welsper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsper/gifts).



> Thanks for the great prompts, Welsper! I hope you like this.

“Silver?” Jim glanced up at him when the older pirate swore lowly and then back at the flag the hulking, heavily fortified ship was flying as it swept down towards their decidedly smaller craft, the black background displaying a pincer-like fist crushing a bloodied heart.

As omens went, it wasn’t exactly a great one. Jim drew his sword.

“Do an old cyborg a favour, lad,” Silver’s flesh-and-blood hand closed over Jim’s hands for a moment, dwarfing them, the touch heavy yet warm. He winced, clearly anticipating a poor reaction, “And sit this one out.”

“What,” Jim was simply unable to refrain from giving the other man a _look_ from under his bangs, “Are you seriously expecting me to hide away somewhere and leave you –”

“No,” Silver huffed, even as he eased up on Jim’s sword, “’Course I don’t _expect_ you to do that, Jimbo.” His wince was becoming even more pronounced as the mammoth enemy ship closed in on them, “I’d just thank you kindly if you’d at least _consider_ it.”

“ _Why_?” There was no point in trying to flee. They were outnumbered, outgunned and painfully outclassed. Jim had barely had any credits to his name on deciding to make his own way after leaving the Navy, what pay he’d built up sent back home to Sarah, BEN and Morph. Silver had managed to crash his own ship during some sort of smuggling run gone wrong when metal-eating insectoids had become involved – a tale that grew taller and more improbable each time he told it, and that would have thrilled Jim when he was young and in truth still thrilled him now. The little vessel they were on currently was the result of the few jewels they’d each succeeded in rustling up, leftover from their first great adventure.

“You think those scurvy bugs that tried to eat my arm and leg sounded bad?” Silver twitched like he wanted to guide Jim behind him when a hatch opened up on the enemy ship, spilling out figures silhouetted by the nearest star, the glint of wickedly serrated blades in their many hands.

“I think we’ve seen worse in our time,” Replying as airily as he was able, Jim insistently planted himself besides the other man.

“These ones _did_ eat my arm and leg,” Silver informed him meaningfully, “Would have eaten the rest of me alive too, if I hadn’t sweet-talked them into letting me cook them something else.” His jaw was set, an unusual rigidity to his broad shoulders, tension running rampant through his frame.

Jim realised with an unpleasant jolt that this was what Silver looked like when he was afraid.

“They _are_ worse,” Silver said softly, as the viciously grinning creatures swarmed onto their little ship – although it wasn’t himself he was afraid for, was it.

It was Jim.

“I can hold my own,” Adrenalin kicking inside him, Jim launched into action, booting one of the creatures in the chest – careful to avoid all its blades – and ducking a swing from another.

“Never doubted that, laddie,” Silver was there to fill in the gap when a third creature crowded Jim’s vulnerable side, its awful mouth open in the attempt to bite and rend, “But these things also spit acid –”

And one did, right at Silver’s face – and it would have got him too, except Jim was there, kicking it away hard at the same time as elbowing the older man in the gut.

“What a way to get me to duck,” Silver wheezed after a couple of fraught minutes, when he’d torn three of the things off Jim’s back, just in time to prevent them savaging his shoulders, although unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for his coat.

They were being overwhelmed.

“Come on then,” Silver was snarling at them, “Back for a second go at me, huh? Just –” He shot a wild look at Jim, even as one of the creatures prepared to spit acid at his metal arm as he reached out to grab it by the throat, strong fingers digging in until there was an unpleasant crack. For all they defeated though, endless others scrabbled in to take their place. His voice emerged a bit hoarse, “Just spare the lad, huh?”

“ _I’m not letting these things eat you in front of me!_ ” Jim shoved his sword through the creature’s back, wriggled out of his ruined coat, leaving another two clutching it, and narrowly evaded a stab to the thigh that would have left him bleeding out helplessly, snatching for their little ship’s controls and basically destroying them until the panel emitted the single most horrendous noise.

“Take that!” He found himself laughing despite everything when the invading creatures shrieked and shuddered and howled, completely losing focus on the fight except for one who flailed out blindly, getting Jim with the back of a spiny hand in the mouth.

He just yanked at the controls all the harder, grinning through bloodied lips.

“How,” Silver panted later, when the creatures had fled back onto their ship in order to make a hurried departure, and Jim’s ears were still ringing a bit, “How’d you know to do that, lad?”

They were both flat on their backs on the deck recovering, avoiding thinking about the fact quite yet that they were the equivalent of dead in the water, as it were.

“Lucky guess,” Wiping his mouth with the back of a bruised hand, Jim could only chuckle a bit, “Got creatures that look a bit like that on Montressor that hate high pitched noises; I raised a couple as a kid when I found the eggs in an abandoned nest. They were a lot smaller, though, and they didn’t spit acid. Or eat people.” He considered the older pirate, “Are you all right?”

“Never better,” Silver huffed a bit as he sat up, cyborg eye roaming around the small craft, notably not looking at Jim, “Maybe a touch embarrassed at being shown up by a young whippersnapper like that, but – never better.”

“You ripped _twelve_ of them off me at the end,” Jim hauled himself upright likewise in order to jab a finger at the other man, “It’s not your fault you were –”

He choked back the rest of the sentence hastily.

“Scared silly them things were going to get you?” Silver said for him, something raw about his voice even though he tried to hide it with a laugh, “Should have known better, shouldn’t I.”

“You think _I_ wasn’t scared they were going to get _you_?” Jim fired back, reaching out to grasp Silver’s collar for emphasis. He sought to give him a shake, signally without effect, “I don’t know what I’d have done if they _had_ eaten the rest of you.” The prospect didn’t bear thinking about. “You can’t really think it would have worked if I _had_ tried to hide.”

Silver was shaking his head even as Jim asked this.

“Can’t blame an old cyborg for trying to protect his greatest treasure of all,” His hand was huge against Jim’s face as he cupped the younger man’s cheek.

“I’m not treasure,” Jim had to object, even as he all but melted into the touch. He licked at his sore lips, tasting blood, and couldn’t resist adding, “And, going by how many creatures were trying to get a bite out of you compared to me, you’re definitely tastier.”

He didn’t actually need to go by the creatures’ opinions to know this.

“Ah lad,” Silver’s face creased as if with regret, although the crookedness of his grin belied the effect, “I’ve got to beg to differ on that.”

“Why don’t we find out,” Jim challenged and, before he could second guess himself, leaned into the other man and upwards, and met the larger mouth with his own, a bright shock like a solar flare going off inside him at the contact and the way Silver jerked as he gasped.

Metal fingers laced themselves in Jim’s hair after a moment of hesitation and then Silver was kissing back, kissing until the taste of blood was gone from Jim’s mouth and all he could taste, all he could smell and see and think of was the other man, his senses swimming in him until he almost felt like the artificial gravity had failed along with the rest of the ship.

“ _Jim_ ,” Silver groaned when Jim nudged him into angling himself backwards, Jim following without breaking the contact of their mouths, climbing on board, and the sound of his name made Jim moan just as much as the feeling of flesh-and-blood fingers curving over his hip.

They’d have to figure out something about the ship eventually, as otherwise they’d end up risking another unfriendly encounter or even the creatures coming back. For now though, Jim couldn’t say he was concerned about that, entirely caught up in the heat and size and strength of the man beneath him.

And, anyway. He was good at winging it.


End file.
